


The things you want

by DivineSquishy



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: M/M, Past Relationship(s), Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-31
Updated: 2012-03-31
Packaged: 2017-11-02 19:19:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DivineSquishy/pseuds/DivineSquishy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe has issues and Marvelous is not really trying to get into his pants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The things you want

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a drabble... yeah. v_v;;

It confused Joe that, after more than a month on the Galleon, Marvelous still hadn’t come to his chambers.

He had thought the other was giving his injuries time to heal, at first, but even when the slight wince whenever he moved around had disappeared, the pirate still hadn’t come for him.

It should have been the normal thing to happen; it certainly had been while he was still with Zangyack. He had a pretty face, after all, a slight effeminate touch to his features that made it easier for the other soldiers to think it wasn’t a man lying underneath them. 

Sid had been different, of course, Sid was always different. His senpai, his mentor, his pillar to lean on when things became too harsh. Sid had always been gentle with him, had made it about Joe instead of some easily gained relief.

But that Sid was gone now, taken from him by the empire. Just like everything else.

Still, Joe was alive and well; even safe. As safe as one could be when seen as a traitor to the Zangyack Empire and in company of a wanted space pirate. A wanted space pirate who had saved his life; had told him “What I want is you.” A space pirate who still hadn’t come for him. And that was, perhaps, the most confusing part about this entire arrangement.

“You still haven’t tried to sleep with me,” Joe finally blurted out over dinner one night, causing Marvelous to actually halt in wolfing down his food, the smug smile that he’d become accustomed to quickly finding its way back to the captain’s face.

“Do you want me to sleep with you?”

The question startled Joe, because behind that smirk there was an underlying sincerity that he’d found Marvelous seldom displayed. 

Or perhaps he was just surprised because Marvelous was asking what _he_ wanted. It has never been about what Joe wanted, not unless he had been with Sid and that simple thought brought up a burst of bitterness in him that he had a hard time suppressing.

“You said you wanted me,” Joe finally muttered in reply, setting down his fork and staring Marvelous straight in the eye.

Perhaps he should have been more surprised when Marvelous started laughing, a deep chuckle that slowly grew in volume until the other just completely cracked up, leaving Joe with a sense of bewilderment and confusion.

It dawned on him only then that that was not the kind of want Marvelous had meant at all and a slight flush rose to his cheeks as he turned back to his food for distraction, waiting for his captain to calm down.

He didn’t mention that incident for quite a while.

-

Marvelous would be lying if he said he hadn’t entertained thoughts of seducing his first mate before. Of tangling his fingers into that long hair of his and tugging until the ever-present ponytail fell open to frame a face that yes, fine, he would love to lay countless kisses upon.

But not while Joe saw it as somehow repaying a debt Marvelous didn’t consider the other to be in. Not as long as he couldn’t be sure that Joe was acting out of want instead of resignation.

So he contended himself with what he had, lingering touches, looking on while Joe was, yet again, exercising.

Joe was part of his crew now, and even if he was a pirate, as his captain he felt honour-bound to act in his best interests, to protect Joe from further harm coming his way.

That did nothing to stop not-quite unbidden thoughts from entering his head, though.

Thoughts of what would happen if he just pushed Joe down during one of their sparring matches for other reasons than deciding victory and defeat; thoughts of how it would feel to have Joe’s body pressed against his own, all lithe and pliant without the many layers of clothing that usually separated them. 

And then there were the dreams, having him waking with beads of sweat covering his body, echoes of dream-Joe’s voice still in his ears as he cursed and attempted for the umpteenth time to will his body into a state of non-arousal. More often than not these nights ended with his hand in his pants and more curses echoing through the cabin.

It made him feel sort of like a horny teenager all over again.

-

Luka took exactly three days to figure out what was going on – or rather, not going on – between her new captain and his first mate, and two of those didn’t count because she spent them passed out from wounds she had sustained while escaping from the Zangyack.

She recognized the way Marvelous would stare at Joe while the other wasn’t looking, so very similar to the looks Cain had directed at her when he’d thought she wasn’t paying attention. Stares that spoke of appreciation, perhaps even admiration, but were filled with so much more. Love, she would say, if she’d known the two of them better. Lust, for certain. It was hard to not be aware of that when half the time Joe was exercising Marvelous’ gaze would wander all over his first mate’s body, probably undressing him with his eyes as he went.

It was rather annoying to watch, all told.

Another five days into her new occupation as a space pirate Luka finally ran out of patience. It was one thing to have looks like that directed at her and just ignore them, but with the way Joe was acting around Marvelous she was fairly certain that this was at least somewhat mutual and thus all the more exasperating to be a bystander of.

“If you want him that much, just tell him. You two are irritating like this,” Luka snapped at Marvelous who was, rather openly, staring at Joe’s ass. 

It should have been solved with that. Except her new captain actually _snorted_ at her, as if she had said something completely ridiculous. 

“If it was that easy we’d be in my cabin right about now.” For a moment Marvelous sounded oddly serious, until his expression morphed back into that cocky grin she was already getting used to, “So if you want his spot in my bed until then, you’re welcome.”

She could tell he was joking, could also tell that this was his way of telling her it wasn’t her business to pry into. That didn’t mean she couldn’t try with Joe, though.

-

Marvelous was on his mind far too much; Joe had admitted that to himself even before Luka had joined the crew. He had sometimes even entertained thoughts of how it would be like to give himself to the other, to trust him as much as he had once trusted Sid. He had thought about acting on those feelings, hadn’t forgotten that conversation they’d had only a short while after he’d been saved by his captain.

He hadn’t forgotten how Marvelous had left the choice up to him. And even if afterwards Joe had caught him looking, the other man had never tried to make a move on him.

He appreciated that more than Marvelous probably thought.

Perhaps that was what had changed things, had made him look at Marvelous in a different light. How there was no expectation behind those looks, no planning of how and when he could lay his hands on Joe. Instead, full acceptance that if something were to happen, it would be on Joe’s terms.

It took some time, but in the end thoughts had started creeping into his mind; thoughts of what it would be like to be held by Marvelous, how it would feel to open up that closed space in his heart for the other man. How Marvelous would react, if after weeks, months of waiting Joe came to him, how he would look at him once he realized his desires had become much less than one-sided. How his captain’s touch would feel on his skin without the pretense of a sparring match between them.

But then, was he really ready to place that much faith into another person again?

What Joe did not expect was for Luka to get involved in the matter. The little thief they’d picked up on a remote planet, with her sharp tongue and eyes that saw more than they should. 

In hindsight he realized this was just like her. Luka never appreciated sneaking around, never kept her thoughts to herself. Was always ready to give her opinion. It had been no different then, barely even two weeks after she had joined them on the Galleon.

“You love him, don’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question, and that startled Joe even more than if she’d merely inquired about it. It was like he was an open book for her, ready to be read, made him wish for a short moment that she didn’t have that perceptiveness of hers.

“Merely as a captain,” he replied, but he was sure he wouldn’t be able to fool her. Not if she’d already seen through him.

Almost as expected, Luka rolled her eyes, leaning back on the loveseat. “Lying to yourself isn’t too good a hobby, you know.”

Joe watched as she stretched, waiting for her to continue. He had a feeling that Luka would refuse to back off until she’d at least made her point clear.

“I don’t even know what you’re so scared of, you’re not so dense that you wouldn’t notice the way he keeps looking at you.” There was a certain frustration drawn onto Luka’s features that she seldom displayed, as if the situation was personally affecting her. Which perhaps it was. As a team – a crew – there shouldn’t be any secrets between them. But that was exactly what he was doing, keeping secrets from Marvelous, if only to protect himself. Unnecessarily so, if what he’d learned of the man so far could be trusted. Maybe Luka was right. Maybe he should just take a chance and leap. But still…

“It’s not that simple, Luka,” Joe sighed, sitting down next to her. “I don’t think he—“

“But it is.” Instead of just her face the frustration was now notably showing in her voice as well as she interrupted him, looking almost ready to smack him upside the head. Which might just have been her next plan of action, if Joe guessed correctly. “He wants you, you want him. I don’t see the problem.”

Joe sighed again. She had a point, in a way. “Fine, I’ll talk to him.” Just not today. Or this week. Or at all for a long time.

-

“I hear you’ve got something to say to me,” Marvelous smirked as Joe froze; he could almost hear what his first mate was thinking in that moment. Luka had said something and now he’d have to find a way to worm himself out of it.

Not that that really was the case. Marvelous had just happened to overhear their conversation, and it had changed things. Or perhaps it had just put them into perspective. Although ‘overheard’ might be the wrong choice of word; ‘eavesdropped’ seemed more fitting. In fact, he was almost certain Luka had orchestrated the whole thing so that he would come down from the bridge just in time to listen to their conversation. At least he wouldn’t put it past her.

In any case, it almost made his patience in waiting for Joe to come around seem a waste. But only almost, because he was still not going to force something onto his first mate that the other wasn’t sure he wanted. Perhaps he was pushing the issue with confronting Joe about it directly, but it didn’t seem like he had any intent of following through on his promise to talk about things.

“I don’t know what Luka told you, but you should know by now that she likes messing with your head almost as much as she loves money.”

Perhaps that excuse would have worked. That was, if Marvelous hadn’t clearly heard Joe admit things to Luka that he’d been hoping to hear for months on end. “You sure it’s not your head she’s been messing with?”

He could almost see the wheels turning in Joe’s head; dense as he could be, the other man wasn’t stupid, far from it. And indeed, it didn’t take long for a look of comprehension to cross Joe’s features, quickly morphing into a mask of disgruntlement. 

“You were listening in on us.” It wasn’t even a question, the way Joe said it, a quiet certainty to his tone that told Marvelous he’d caught on to exactly what was going on.

“Exactly,” Marvelous grinned, shifting his weight from one foot to another, “now can we stop pretending like you never said anything and start making out? Unless you have more moral horizons to cross than just liking the person you might end up in bed with.”

He was not quite sure if the groan that followed his words was one of exasperation or mortification at being found out, but at least he’d finally made his move, and it was time for Joe to respond.

-

It was not how Joe had wanted Marvelous to find out. Granted, he had not wanted the other man to find out at all, but certainly not by eavesdropping on him and Luka. But perhaps he should have expected it. Luka liked meddling enough to arrange for it, and Marvelous’ nosiness would’ve ensured that he stayed to hear everything. He should have known the moment that little thief cornered him. 

Truth was, both Marvelous and Luka had a point. He wasn’t even sure himself why he was shying away from the idea so much. Perhaps because it would feel like he was letting go of another memory Sid had left with him. One step closer to accepting that he really had lost his senpai. A step closer to moving on.

But was he ready for that just yet?

“Joe.” It was the seriousness in Marvelous’ voice that finally made him meet the other man’s eyes, a seriousness that rarely surfaced. “I stand by what I told you when you first joined me, but I don’t understand why you’re denying yourself something that you so obviously want. Think about it, okay?”

As much as Marvelous was a pirate, he was a man of his word. Joe had come to realize that all too soon. “I will.”

And he meant it, this time. Maybe acting on his feelings wouldn’t be all that bad. Maybe the concept of moving on would lose the terrifying edge of forgetting it had held all this time. Maybe Marvelous wouldn’t just be a replacement for Sid; it would instead be what the two of them could never have under the Zangyack Empire.

Joe smiled, a quick reassurance to his captain that things would be fine. “Now get back to the bridge, before we fly into a random comet crossing our path.”

And maybe he would pay a visit to Marvelous’s quarters later.


End file.
